I am an avid fan of analytics and cost breakdowns and have tracked every expense since I bought my Honda Civic in January of 2018. Originally it was listed on Craigslist for $2100, but I negotiated paying $2000. It had 183,000 miles when I bought it and it now has a little over 200,000 miles. This means that I have put 17,000 miles on it in 18 months – I have driven it under 1000 miles per month. It costs me $366/month right now to own, drive, and maintain this car. I get 34MPG on average.
I have no record of the last timing belt change – but the recommendation is every 100,000 miles so my car is due. It will cost between $500-$1000 for this maintenance and it will increase the cost of ownership of my car by ~$55/month if I were to do it immediately.
I do budget $300/month in car maintenance/gas/insurance/anything-but-the-cost-of-the-car and I have $465 saved up from that budgeting line item. I dislike spending money but the cost seems minimal in order to use this car. My worry is that I will put this money into the car and if something were to happen to it, that money would be wasted. However, if the timing belt were to break and I totaled my car then shame on me for not properly maintaining my faithful POSH Donut-Mobile.
|
12-month cost 01/16/19 |
Total |
Per month |
|
Initial Investment |
2000 |
166.67 |
|
Legalities (Registration/Title) |
350 |
29.17 |
|
Gas |
1200 |
100 |
|
Insurance |
1013.65 |
84.47 |
|
Maintenance |
1600 |
133.33 |
|
2018 business miles |
-761.54 |
-63.46 |
|
Total |
5402.11 |
450.176 |
|
|
|
|
|
18-month cost 07/16/19 |
Total |
Per month |
|
Initial Investment |
2000 |
111.11 |
|
Legalities (Registration/Title) |
350 |
19.44 |
|
Gas |
1433.74 |
79.65 |
|
Insurance |
1793.08 |
99.62 |
|
Maintenance |
2055.05 |
114.17 |
|
2018-2019 business miles |
-1026.49 |
-57.03 |
|
Total |
6605.38 |
366.97 |
Rachel Author Barnard 
I wonder if there’s anywhere that you can find an expected mileage life span of that vehicle. Many vehicles tend to reach 200,000 or so and then start coming apart in all kinds of ways. But some, like my Subaru’s (especially the manual transmission ones) have lasted to 270,000.
I would consider the mileage prospect you have left and pencil it out that way. It may be better to put the saved money and what you can get for the vehicle as it runs in pretty good condition now, toward getting a somewhat lower mileage vehicle again?
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